Culture

Frank is a man of principles and you pay dearly for having principles in Cuba. State institutions which control culture (extensions of the Communist Part) haven’t been able to forgive his irreverence, his critical discourse, the cutting and impudent way he talks and sings about Che, about Fidel or about socially traumatic experiences we’ve had in our more recent history…

Yasser Castellanos, an independent Cuban artist and illustrator for Havana Times, received an official citation from State Security signed by a certain Lieutenant Pablo. He is expected at the Cuba and Chacon, Old Havana station on Friday, August 10, at 2 p.m. The stated reason: interview.

Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Carlos Mejia Godoy went into exile in Costa Rica after receiving death threats from alleged associates of Daniel Ortega’s government. “I had to leave without telling anyone (…) I was recommended to leave the country as soon as possible,”

This is a summary of an open letter about the #00 Biennial delivered in recent days to several Cuban institutions. The text gives details on the process of successfully organizing the event in the face of numerous sabotage attempts. We include a selection of works that participated in the Alternative Havana Biennial.

It’s night-time. Suspicious eyes roam the streets. Poetry is being read, songs are being sung and there are cries at a new alternative festival “Poesia Sin Fin”, in a corner of Old Havana. We don’t all fit inside the house. The audience gathers outside a door and window to hear verses.

After six decades, Felipe Lazaro hasn’t stopped fighing against ruin and oblivion. He returns to his happy childhood in a Guines from yesteryear, the main town to the south of Havana, which finds itself in ruins today. His most recent book, “Invisibles triangulos de muerte” (2017), was recently published by Editorial Bethania.

Lia Villares is a Cuban artist who many people only bespeak for her political impact on the island’s artistic world. She is a writer, filmmaker, and was the bass player in the punk band Porno para Ricardo.

Memory in pictures. Cuban Film Institute Posters 1960-2017, is the name of an exhibition which was recently inaugurated at the National Museum of Fine Art’s building dedicated to Cuban Art and is open to the public through August 12th. (21 photos)

Old poems written by Ernesto Cardenal have gained new life. His writing about a bloody dictatorship seem to have been written a couple of days ago, inspired by the most recent fatalities and repression in Nicaragua. But, they weren’t. They were created a half century ago under the Somoza dictatorship.